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Super Brawl 33

Super Brawl 33 put together the best card (at least in my opinion) in a while. In addition to the great card, former and current UFC champs were out in numbers. I will just list them off to save time; Tim Sylvia, Dave Menne, Matt Hughes, BJ Penn and Jens Pulver. SB 33 would feature a four man tournament of the best 155lbers in Hawaii to see who is Hawaii’s top dog in that weight class… A fighter representing each of the four largest MMA schools in Hawaii took part in the tournament. It was the 808 Fight Factory’s night because four fighters competed and all four won their matches. The king of the 155lbs hill would be 808 Fight Factory’s Harris Sarmiento. His superior striking and take down skills lead him to victory against two tough opponents. Another impressive performance was Sarmiento’s teammate, Ed Newalu dominating a very tough Harvey Nakamoto. Bryson Monterde also stood out and was on another level than his opponent. 808′s top fighter, Ron Jhun, pounded on a very tricky Kyle Brees.

Jhun pounding on Brees

Jens Pulver stepped into the ring with one of Hawaii’s best 145lbers in Eddie Yagin. Unfortunately, this match was an exhibition kickboxing match and was "cut" short (pun intended) due to a pre-existing laceration over Pulver’s eye that was reopened with the help of Yagin. A night of great fights was capped off by one of the best main events in Super Brawl history. Niko Vitale wanted to prove that he was having an off night during his rematch with Matt Lindland in his last UFC appearance. Vitale took it to one of the best 185lbs fighters in the world, former UFC Middleweight champion, Dave Menne. Much like Charuto Verissimo bloodied Gil Castillo, Vitale did the same to Menne, which is no easy task. Vitale out-punched Menne for three rounds, getting off quicker punches and even staggering Menne with some punches.

This month, we’d like your thoughts on the recent MMA events that have taken place in the past few weeks … UFC 46, Pride 27, etc. If you haven’t seen the events yet, feel free to discuss anything else on your mind that has to do with MMA. Sound off!

A large, well behaved crowd showed up at Casa Grande to enjoy Rage in the Cage at its best.

Shane "Battle Cat" Johnson, from Tucson, returned to RITC after a 3 year layoff. He showed no cage "rust" in scoring a first round submission victory over a highly regarded opponent. This impressive win earned Fighter of the Night (FOTN) honors for Shane. Other candidates for FOTN were Michael Perales, Troy Tolbert, Cory Timmerman, Ed West, Mike Lightfoot and Mike Rainieri.